The Scottish government is considering whether to adopt a covid risk modelling tool that led to 1.7 million more people in England being asked to start shielding recently.

The QCovid risk prediction model, developed by researchers at the University of Oxford, takes into account additional factors such as ethnicity, deprivation and weight.

Poorer Scots are more than twice as likely to suffer the worst effects of or die from covid-19, while people of South Asian origin have experienced around a two-fold increase in the risk of admission to critical care with the virus.

Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs yesterday: “We are considering the QCovid list further. The findings of the QCovid tool have already led to some groups being added to the shielding list in Scotland, such as people with chronic kidney disease, stage 5 Down syndrome or severe liver disease.

“However, the model was developed using death and hospitalisation data from England, so the advice the government has had is more work needs to be done to validate the tool more fully in relation to Scottish data before we can be confident about using it more widely in Scotland.”

Ms Sturgeon added: “Options around that are being considered at the moment, and we will continue to work with partners to understand how it can work in the context of Scottish health data.”

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